Crowd vows to fight immigration change

Sunday

PHOENIX (AP) — Arodi Berrelleza isn’t one of the targets of Arizona’s new law cracking down on illegal immigration — he’s a U.S. citizen, a student from Phoenix.

But the 18-year-old said he’s afraid he’ll be arrested anyway if police see him driving around with friends and relatives, some of them illegal immigrants.

“If a cop sees them and they look Mexican, he’s going to stop me,” Berrelleza said. “What if people are U.S. citizens? They’re going to be asking them if they have papers because of the color of their skin.”

Berrelleza’s concerns were echoed by Hispanics across the state yesterday, a day after Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill that requires police to question people about their immigration status — including asking for identification — if they suspect someone is in the country illegally.

The new law, which will take effect in late July or early August, was cheered by many, including Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose tough crackdowns have made him a hero in the anti-illegal immigration community. He said it gives him new authority to detain undocumented migrants who aren’t accused of committing any other crimes.

“Now if we show they’re illegal, we can actually arrest them and put them in our jails,” Arpaio said.

Current law in Arizona and most states doesn’t require police to ask about the immigration status of those they come across, and many departments prohibit officers from inquiring out of fear immigrants won’t report crime or cooperate in other investigations.

Now, police departments seen as weak on illegal immigration could face lawsuits. The new measure also toughens restrictions on hiring illegal immigrants for day labor and knowingly transporting them.

Arizona has an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants and is the state with the most illegal border crossings, with its harsh, remote desert serving as the gateway into the state.

Arpaio said he hoped Arizona’s example coerces the federal government into acting to seal the border. President Barack Obama called the new law “misguided” Friday and instructed the Justice Department to examine it to see if it’s legal, but also allowed that the failure to enact immigration reform at the national level left the door open to “irresponsibility by others.”

“You’re going to see a lot of interest with the politicians in Washington to get something done,” Arpaio said. “Because I think they’ll be afraid that other states will follow this new law that’s now been passed.”

Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s office said in a statement yesterday that “the Mexican government condemns the approval of the law” and “the criminalization of migration, far from contributing to collaboration and cooperation between Mexico and the state of Arizona, represents an obstacle to solving the shared problems of the border region.”

Mona Patton, a 58-year-old real estate agent from Prescott, Ariz., said she’s proud of Brewer and the Legislature for trying to protect people from violent drug cartels.

“When Arizonans aren’t safe then something has to be done. We’ve got to let law enforcement handle things,” Patton said.

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